Pride, look for the rainbow . . .

Dear you,

Happy LGBTQ Pride Month! 

Hot pink: Sex

Turquoise: Magic/Art

Red: Life

Violet: Spirit

Orange: Healing

Yellow: Sunlight

Green: Nature

These are colors that can be found in versions of Gilbert Baker’s rainbow flag.

I went bopping around the condo complex looking for those colors on balcony flags or even on bumper stickers.  Well, you know where I live; the odds weren’t good. I went from building one to building fourteen searching for that rainbow or any progressive symbol.  Other than the occasional innocuous “Honor Student on Board” or “Adopt a Rescue Pet” stickers, I didn’t find much.  At least those messages made me smile.  But then I saw this on somebody’s rear window:

How lovely. Is this like a patriotic fetish thing or something? I wasn’t sure what this flag skull was all about, so I turned to the ever-useful Google for basic information.  I learned this image is based on the Marvel Comics Punisher character.  The creator did not intend it to be used as it is these days, as a sign of support for ultra-conservative, far-right movements.  Salon.com, 2019, featured an article with this headline: “The Punisher skull: Unofficial logo of the white American death cult”.  A bit from that article by David Masciotra: “One of the impetuses for its popularity was a reactionary objection to the Black Lives Matter protest movement.  Thoughtless defenders of police amid allegations, or even video evidence, of unethical use of fatal force, adopted the Punisher skull as a sign of loyalty to the unbreakable ‘blue line’.”

The Skull flag. A symbol of violence, literalism, death, callousness, disease, ignorance, and nihilism.

The Rainbow flag. A symbol of sex, magic/art, life, spirit, healing, sunlight, and nature.

Considering the contrast, the rainbow wins. Simple math:  Rainbow Flag > Skull Flag

Saluting everything that is “greater than” during this LGBTQ month, year, era . . .

Love,

Joyce